All The Noise At Once by DeAndra Davis

Even if one of the supporting cast wasn’t named after an Arsenal Football Club legend, I would still rate this sensitive, witty and heartbreakingly realistic exploration of the effect of police brutality on a Black autistic teenager very highly.

All Aiden Wright has ever wanted to do is play football on the same team with his older brother Brandon. Brandon isn’t just the star quarterback at their Florida high school: he’s also being courted by multiple schools for his athletic prowess. Aiden is no slouch himself when it comes to both football analysis and speed. He’d be the perfect running back to complement his brother’s skills.

But Aiden suffers a massive sensory overload during his junior year tryout, so isn’t selected for the team. To add insult to injury, his Life Skills teacher is adamant that he use his ample free time to get an after-school job. At least his assigned partner for the task, Isabella, is both understanding and kind.

Things might start looking up even more when a running back position suddenly opens on the football team. Brandon persuades Coach Davis to give Aiden another chance, and the team acquit themselves well in their first game. While Aiden would really rather not go out with the rest of the team to celebrate at a local diner afterwards, he knows that it means a lot to Brandon, so does his best to return the support that his brother has always given him.

Unfortunately, not everyone on the team is thrilled that Aiden has joined them. When a fight breaks out, the police are called in and Aiden gets hurt. Worse: Brandon is arrested for allegedly assaulting a police officer while trying to come to Aiden’s aid, putting his football career and entire future in grave jeopardy.

Thus begins a nightmare for the Wright family, as Brandon is put on trial and Aiden tries to make sense of everything that happened that night. Their lawyer mother drilled it into her kids to comply with the cops, so Aiden knows that there’s no way that charismatic, good-natured Brandon could ever be guilty of the charges. But how will he clear his brother’s name? And will he finally be able to confront what it means to be Black and autistic in America?

While told entirely through Aiden’s perspective, this is a thoughtful look at racism from multiple angles, as Aiden’s autism has him approach the issue in less than conventional ways. It’s also a terrific examination of what it means to be autistic, of the general decency that’s all that most autistic people expect, and how the disorder isn’t a blanket excuse for lack of accountability. As the parent of autistic kids myself, I know that it’s important for them to be treated in age-appropriate ways that help them develop the skills that they’ll need to grow up to be happy, functional and independent adults.

And as an eldest child who’s also felt the pressure to be perfect, I really sympathized with Brandon, who’s a good kid put into an impossible situation. The way that everyone pulls together through this, how DeAndra Davis recognizes the humanity in everyone and has no trouble pointing out bad behavior even as she, through Aiden, refuses to condemn people as just straight up evil, is honestly a soul-elevating experience. While there may be reprehensible people in power who need to be checked from committing abuses and removed, and while we all absolutely need to do some self-reflection on how we’re each culpable in exacerbating the effects of racism, holding onto bitterness only poisons the soul — and this is coming from me, a person who does not forgive easily, at least not in the sense that the concept is used in American popular culture.

This is a phenomenal, assured debut novel that needs to be widely read. Highly recommended.

All The Noise At Once by DeAndra Davis will be published tomorrow April 15 2025 by Atheneum Books For Young Readers and is available from all good booksellers, including